It has been 5 years since I’ve enjoyed a long Christmas break. I had a whole week and a half off to celebrate with family and friends. I enjoyed every minute of it but I was happy to get back to normal as the daycare kids came back today. I downloaded a set of adorable January calendar cards from Educents. On each card is a penguin dressed in winter clothes. Also on each card is the number corresponding to the calendar date and a “word of the day.”

January Calendar Cards – Photo Credit – Tina Truelove

I printed off the January calendar cards. The lines on the pages are from my printer, not the actual calendar cards.

January Calendar Cards – Photo Credit – Tina Truelove

I cut out the cards. I thought the cards would be a little bigger but they work on my large classroom calendar board just fine. I “laminated” them with clear packing tape and attached them to my calendar board.

Photo Credit – Tina Truelove

On each card is the number for the calendar date and a “word of the day.” The first word of the day is “New Year.” Here are a few other examples.

Photo Credit – Tina Truelove

January Calendar Cards – Photo Credit – Tina Truelove

January Calendar Cards – Photo Credit – Tina Truelove

January Calendar Cards – Photo Credit – Tina Truelove

As you advance through the cards, some of the words might be too challenging for preschool children but they still serve as a good source for conversation during calendar time. Calendar cards also serve as sort of an outline for planning other activities throughout the month. For example, if you look at the cards above, you can plan snow activities on January 10th. You can plan activities about courage on January 15th, and you can do igloo activities on January 27th. My little preschoolers like the cards. They like the blue color and the cute little penguin on each card. My 4 year old preschooler likes them because they are going to help her learn to count.

I downloaded these January Calendar Cards from Educents just seconds after I purchased them. I used the code BLOWOUT and saved 15%. I only paid a little over $2.00 and I’m sure I’ll use the cards for several more years. Educents has lots of other educational tools. Check them out!

When Our Children Suffer

One of the most difficult things we do as parents is watch our children suffer. It starts at birth really. We hold our newborns close and their very first cries both bless our hearts and break them at the same time. I still remember my first thoughts as a new mom:

The baby is crying so he must be hungry, or wet, or dirty . . .

or what if he is hurting somewhere and can’t tell me.

What do I do?

How do I comfort my baby?

I don’t want my baby to suffer.

Then, our children grow a little bit and maybe bump their heads on a table or skin their knees in a bicycle accident. We kiss their “boo-boos” and give them a little lovin’ and all is well.

The cycle continues as they grow up. They get a bump . . . mom makes it all better.

We all worry about our children and we all know that something terrible could happen to them, but we really don’t like to think about it . . . until it happens.

When our children suffer, we suffer. My own children have not suffered life changing accidents, at least not yet, but I have friends who have watched their children suffer with little means to comfort them. They do all the “mommy” and “daddy” things they know how to do to comfort their children, but in some cases, all they can do is be there and support them through the pain – help them learn from it.

Some parents handle suffering better, or differently, than others. Sometimes the agony over a suffering child is enough to cause emotional harm – to both the parent and the child.

Sometimes parents rise above the suffering and embrace the trials. One of my favorite Bible verses comes to mind.

Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish it’s work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4

I have one friend in particular who has an amazing and inspiring story. Her teenage son, Sam, suffered a terrible accident exactly one year and one day ago. It was an ATV rollover accident and one that changed their lives forever. During the accident, Sam suffered a mangled foot which resulted in three amputations, several infections and a lot of trial and error as they suffered through the injury and the healing process. I watched her story unfold as it happened throughout the year and at times, I wasn’t sure how she held on, but I only doubted for a moment and then I was reminded of her steadfast faith in a God who knows what He’s doing. She trusted God completely with her son’s life and she never doubted His love for her son or His plan for her son’s life. I could tell you the story myself, but his mother, my friend Judy, posted on Facebook the most inspiring summary of their year so I want to share her story with you, just as she wrote it. Here it is:

On the first Saturday of August 2013, I did exactly what I did today. I got on the riding lawnmower and bumped and jostled my way across our acre of hills and ruts. I was in the rose bed out back, flat on my back, pulling vines and weeds out by the handfuls and wondering how the bed had gotten in such bad shape so quickly.

Last year, the first Saturday in August, I stopped in the middle of the large rose bed and came in the house to get a glass of water. It was hot, sweaty, scratchy work and I had deep scratches on my arms and legs where I was ripping out the vines while praying to my heavenly Father to make the landscape of our lives a thing of beauty once again.

I came into the house and shortly thereafter, Catherine received a call on her cell phone that would forever change, yet again, the landscape of our family. Sam was screaming into the phone to get mom, get ME, that his foot was gone and that he was in agony. Catherine thought he was joking until we realized the panic, fear and pain that was in Sam’s voice. Leaving Hannah at the house, Catherine and I jumped into the BMW and I drove to Oliver Mill Road in Lula. Driving much too fast, Catherine was hanging on for dear life and said “Mom, what if a policeman stops us?”

I replied, “He’ll just have to follow us because I’m not stopping.”

Driving over 90 miles an hour at times, I reached the field where the ambulance was sitting. I vaguely remember hugging Stephen, thankful that he was OK and then climbing into the ambulance. What I saw scared me to death.

Sam was on a body board with his head immobilized and his right foot covered in gauze. The EMTs kept saying, “Don’t look at his foot, ma’am”.

I asked if Sam was paralyzed because that was my first thought. Seeing him there on the stretcher – he looked so young and scared. He grabbed my hand and I held it with every fiber of my being. Shortly, we heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter landing close by. Catherine was standing with our friend, Brian Rogers, and Stephen was in the car, waiting. No one wanted Stephen to see Sam. Not yet, anyway.

Someone had the presence of mind to grab Sam’s right shoe and toss it into Catherine’s trunk. Little did we know that he’d never wear that shoe again. The EMTs asked me my weight while all the time Sam was screaming “Momma, Momma!”.

He wanted me to ride with him in the helicopter, wherever we were going. My weight was important because the helicopter was carrying Sam, the pilot, two EMTs and a lot of equipment, plus Sam’s mom. I was, thankfully, under the weight limit so up we went.

Someone was trying to find out where the “re-attachment trauma” team was – were they at Grady or at Egleston? They asked me my preference and I said Egleston. Fortunately, they were able to assemble the surgical team.

It wasn’t until recently that I had a conversation with his surgeon about that day. Dr. De mentioned that it would soon be a year and I was surprised that he remembered and said so. He smiled and said that there were some patients you don’t forget. He said he had just gotten home from Egleston when he received the call about Sam. He said that on the drive back, he called a colleague in Texas to discuss Sam and what little he knew so far about his injuries.

After we arrived on the roof at Egleston, we were hustled down into the emergency room. My head was spinning and I had thrown up in a barf bag right before landing. Stress, I guess. People kept asking me questions and I ended up dumping my purse in the floor of the hallway, frantically searching for my drivers license and the insurance card. Somehow, I had the presence of mind to bring my purse with me. Questions, questions, questions, and all I wanted to do was to be with my son – my eldest son, my pride and joy. If you are a parent, you will understand what I say when I say that I love all of my five children equally, but I do love them in different ways. Sam was my first boy. I hadn’t known anything about boys.

The chaplain came up to me and introduced himself and offered to pray with me. I grabbed his hands and said, “No, honey, I’m doing the praying here.”

I haven’t a clue what I prayed but my face and his were drenched with tears when we finished. When they finally let me into the room with Sam, he reached out and grabbed my hand and held it as hard as he could. He wanted me to pray and he wanted me to sing. So I prayed and sang “Victory in Jesus”, “Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord”, and several other songs. I have no idea what I sang or how long I sang. Finally, the nurses intervened and said that the surgeon had arrived and we needed to leave so that the medication could take full effect and Sam would be prepped for surgery.

I left the room and was ushered into a waiting room somewhere. It was filled with friends, and more friends kept arriving to sit and wait. Someone had found Larry at the gym, I think, and he was there with Catherine. Somebody had the presence of mind to go get Hannah and take her to a friend’s house to spend the night. None of us knew the extent of the injuries yet – so we all sat and waited.

I have never been surrounded by so many people who cared deeply about me and yet I felt so alone. After the doctor came out and told us how truly bad Sam’s injury was, I desperately needed comforting. I was bereft of any comfort save that of God, yet I could not form the words to pray.

Somehow, someway, we made it through the first several days. I was a nervous wreck. I had no appetite and the pounds continued to fall off of my small frame. Then the time came for a decision to be made and Sam made the decision to have the first amputation. If we had known then what we know now, we would have opted for the mid-shin amputation to begin with and saved countless days and months of agony for Sam. But we were blindly optimistic, hoping against hope that our maimed son could remain as whole as possible and still function.

August 3rd is a Sunday this year. August 3, 2014 marks the one-year “anniversary” of Sam’s life-changing event. Sam is recovering and thriving, relying on his wit, determination and humor to get him through difficult situations.

As for me, I will wait patiently. At least most days, that is. Some days I’m rather impatient. But for a person who always had to be in control of every aspect of her life – micromanaged down to the minute – God is teaching me divine patience. I have always heard the old saying “the good Lord won’t put more on you than you can bear”.

I disagree.

I believe now that God will heap difficultly after difficulty on you until you are so buried in pain and anguish that you can no longer breathe or think. Yes, I believe that God purposefully, yet in complete love, permits unspeakable events to bring us to our knees. Then, He permits yet more unspeakable burdens until you lie prostrate on the floor, face to the ground, weeping and crying out to Him. At times, all I can say is “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”.

Thankfully, Jesus is my advocate, my intercessor before God. The I AM God, the provider God, the healing God, the comforter, and Jesus takes my sobbing moans and turns them into perfect advocacy for me, His beloved.

Sam will walk, perhaps swagger a bit, into Gainesville High School on Thursday. There, he will attend classes, renew friendships, eat lunch, be the comedian and hopefully learn a little. Sam has already learned life lessons that he, in turn, could teach not only his friends, but also his teachers – perseverance in the face of unfair loss – pushing through day after day of monotonous meals, medicines, wound vacs, feeding tubes and the same four walls, day after day, week after week. Sam has experienced pain that no person, let alone a 15 year old, should ever anticipate in their lives. The permanent nature of his loss – forever is a long time to a 15 year old. Facing life with humor and humility; understanding that the loss could have been so much more severe and the cold hard truth that his brother could have also been with him on the vehicle and also injured or perhaps killed.

God is good.

Sometimes His goodness is clouded in heartache and hurt, disappointment and trials, but we rest in the knowledge that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. Do I understand why Sam and our family have gone through the horror of this past year? No. But I know that Sam will have the ability to touch far more peoples’ lives with one leg than with two. That Sam will be capable of much more than he ever dreamed of or imagined and that his life will be purposeful and valuable. I also know that Sam will achieve greatness as long as he keeps his eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. But that is true for each of us, isn’t it?

August 3rd. Until I breathe my final breath, that day will forever be etched into my memory.

Sam’s Story in Photos

Whether or not your child is going through difficult times, being a mom is hard. However, the following resources might help.

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